Frontline TV segment bashing supplements called 'patently dishonest' by NPA chief

By Hank Schultz

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Dietary supplement Food and drug administration

iStock photo
iStock photo
The national investigative TV program Frontline segment that aired last night was a rehash of familiar criticisms of the supplement industry, and was in part “patently dishonest,” according to NPA executive director Dan Fabricant, who was quoted at several points in the show.

In the hour-long segment that aired last night on PBS stations, titled “Supplements and Safety,”​ correspondent Gillian Findlay dredged up many talking points that have been echoed by long-standing critics of the industry.  Among those interviewed were Dr Paul Offit of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Dr Pieter Cohen of the Harvard Medical School as well as New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. On the industry side Findlay interviewed Adam Ismail, executive director of GOED speaking to the science behind omega-3s, and Fabricant, who is the executive director of the Natural Products Association and was formerly director of the Division of Dietary Supplement Programs at the Food and Drug Administration.

Poorly regulated, unsafe, ineffective

The overall point of view of the show, which was produced in partnership with The New York Times,​ was that supplements are poorly regulated and potentially unsafe.  The writers of the show also went to lengths to claim that there is little evidence of efficacy, and attacked the science behind omega-3s and multivitamin supplements.

In the most serious issue raised in the show, Findlay grilled Fabricant on the course of the investigation into the cases of liver injury in Hawaii associated with a tainted product called Oxy Elite Pro, marketed by USP Labs.  Findlay’s point of view was that it took FDA, where Fabricant was employed at the time, too long to respond to the event, and the segment quoted Hawaii transplant surgeon Linda Wong who said it was hard to get the agency’s attention via the Medwatch system of adverse event reporting.  In the end there were more than 50 cases of liver injury associated with the event, and two patients required liver transplants.  The poisoning was traced to the company’s use of a tainted lot of synthetic aegiline from a Chinese supplier.  Aegline, a molecule which can be found as a constituent of the fruit of the Bael tree, has been deemed by FDA as an unlawful dietary ingredient.

“I can’t respond to hearsay,” ​Fabricant was quoted in response to the Medwatch criticism.  But as far as Oxy Elite Pro event itself was concerned, he said it was an example of FDA moving quickly when proper documentation was available.  “We have to generate evidence that will stand up in court,” ​Fabricant said.

In another tainting episode, the show cast the owners of Purity First Products, a Long Island-based supplement marketing firm, in the curious role of well-meaning victims of a shoddy contract manufacturer. In 2013 the firm recalled lots of three vitamin products which were found to be tainted with anabolic steroids. This event was portrayed as an example of weak FDA oversight, as the owners were quoted as saying that agency investigators told them not to worry too much about the adverse event reports connected to their products. Findlay did quote FDA as denying those conversations took place.

‘Patently dishonest’

Fabricant, in speaking with NutraIngredients-USA after the show aired, said that there was no attempt to put the assertions into proper context.  In the discussion of DNA test results, there was no mention of the issue of products featuring herbal extracts being tested for DNA when little or no DNA of the parent material would be expected to be in the bottle. This critical issue was passed off by Findlay as saying that industry “disputed the methodology.”

“I think a lot of this was just patently dishonest,” ​he said. “For example, when they attacked the efficacy of fish oil . . . how did a drug get approved based on fish oil?  Clearly there’s something there.”

Fabricant also said that the Hawaii episode transpired during the government shutdown that was orchestrated by the Republican party. From his point of view, it was a case of the agency turning on a dime, not the inefficient response that was portrayed by the show’s producers.

“I got that done in 15 days during the furlough,” ​Fabricant said.

Overall, he said that despite the show’s rehash of familiar talking points from industry critics there is evidence of progress.  

“I think we stood our ground.  We’ve got a good story to tell and we’re going to tell it,”​ Fabricant said. “I think we are changing the dialogue. If you go onto the PBS website, the message used to be that supplements are unregulated. Now you have Josh Sharfstein (formerly of FDA) quoted there saying that FDA has the tools it needs but they are hard to use."

Related topics Regulation Media & industry critics

Related news

6 comments

Show more

It's PBS

Posted by Larry,

Fortunately this was on PBS. I stopped watching Frontline years ago. That being said I agree Sheb. If the better companies in industry does not do something to differentiate themselves from the companies that make tainted or poor quality supplements the industry only has itself to blame.
It has been experience over 20 years that the average consumer has no clue as to the differences between a good product and poor one. All you need to do is to look at the private label brands at Wal-Mart or Whole Foods to see the lack of quality. Unfortunately only those in the industry can see that.
This also applies to some of the some of the biggest companies in the industry who go out of their way to use the wrong species of plant. These same companies also game their labels to make it appear the consume is getting a better deal when in fact they are actually paying more.
It is time to publicly call out these companies so that the consumer knows who they are and what they are doing. If the industry does not then it deserves the damage these companies do to the integrity of the entire supplement universe.

Report abuse

"FDA has the tools it needs but they are hard to use."

Posted by Ken,

No matter how poorly the media portrays the current issues of supplement safety, leaving the onus on establishing safety for the FDA to determine rather than manufacturers will only result in further cases of toxicity and more reasons for the public to distrust dietary supplements. For herbal ingredients alone, there are numerous products without any safety studies and many with only a modicum of testing for toxicity.

Report abuse

Questionable critics

Posted by Jonik,

It's so famous that the FDA and all the other govt "health" agencies are up to here in contamination from corporate Pharms and the rest that it's berserk that PBS would give those entities even a drop of credibility in their attack on un-patented, natural, traditional, competing, herbal and supplements providers....notwithstanding the herbal-supplements profiteers that come off as untrustworthy.
That some of the herbal-supplements providers are shown to be untrustworthy doesn't mean that the herbs and supplements are not beneficial, and improvements on the stuff sold by Big Pharm and the FDA and all.
That Dr. David Kessler was brought out to discredit the herbal-supplements movement is telling. He's Mr. Anti Smoking...who pretends to know nothing about hundreds of toxic-carcinogenic tobacco pesticides, cancer-causing radiation from some still legal tobacco fertilizers, dioxin-creating chlorine cig adulterants, etc etc.

Report abuse

Follow us

Products

View more

Webinars